New Moon Book Review
By Durana Layman

New Moon is the second book in the Twilight Saga.  The book begins with all of the passion that we had at the ending of the Twilight book.  Bella and Edward are passionately in love.  They are very happy together.

It is Bella’s birthday which she is not so excited about.  She doesn’t like the fact that she is getting older and Edward is not aging.  Alice has planned Bella a birthday party.  The Cullen’s have gone to the extreme for this party.  They have gotten a beautiful cake and elaborate decorations.  They are very excited because none of them celebrate birthdays.  They can’t wait for Bella to open her presents.

As Bella is opening her presents, she gets a paper cut.  Jasper can not control his hunger and he lunges at her.  Edward flings himself over Bella to protect her and she crashes into the cake table.  She falls into the broken crystal from the plates and cuts herself up pretty badly.  The rest of the family drags Jasper outside and Carlisle stitches Bella up.  Edward was devastated.

Edward takes Bella home but she can tell that something was wrong.  He is very withdrawn.  She talks him into staying the night with her.  But the days that followed just got worse.  She knew that something was very wrong but she thought that he would get over it.

Edward tells Bella that he needs to talk to her and he takes her on a walk into the woods by her house.  He tells her that he doesn’t want her anymore and that he is leaving.  Of course we know that he is only doing this to protect her but she doesn’t know this.

After Edward leaves, Bella goes into a deep depression.  She attends school, works, and cooks for Charlie but besides that she is pretty much useless.  She thinks that she is putting on a good front but Charlie sees through it.  He talks to her about it and she starts trying harder.

She figures out that if she is doing something dangerous she can hear Edward’s voice.  So, she starts doing very dangerous stuff.  She finds some old motorcycles and takes them to Jacob Black and they fix them up together.  She starts riding motorcycles to hear Edward’s voice.  Her and Jacob become very close.  We learn about Jacob being a wolf in this book.

She decides to go cliff diving so that she will be able to hear Edward’s voice, but it doesn’t work out like she thought it would.  The current is too swift and she almost drowns.  Jacob hears her scream as she jumps into the water and he saves her.  Alice sees Bella jump from the cliff in her visions.  Alice thinks that Bella is dead and she goes back to Forks to comfort Charlie.

Rosalie decides that Edward should know that Bella is dead so she calls him to tell him.  Of course with Bella dead, Edward feels he has no reason to live now.  He goes to the Volturi to provoke them to kill him.  Alice sees him in her visions going to the Volturi in Italy and she and Bella go to try to save him.  They successfully save him, but the Volturi almost kill Bella because she knows too much.  Edward and Alice talk their way out of it and they all return to Forks.  Edward decides that Bella is in more danger when he is gone than she is when he is there which suits him just fine.

Edward and Bella resume their relationship where it left off which leaves Jacob feeling abandoned.  Wolves and vampires are natural enemies so it puts Bella in a really bad spot.  Jacob is her best friend and has been there for her when no one else was, but Edward is the love of her life and she can not live without him.